Detroit
Movie Palaces
The
Film Programs of the Detroit Film Theatre, Michigan Theater, and
Redford Theatre
The Film Programs of the Detroit Film Theatre, Michigan Theater, and Redford Theatre
Your Guide to Classic Movie Theater Filmgoing!
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Looking Back
August 1931
Step back in time to see what area movie theaters were presenting in August 1931. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.
For more information about these theaters, see Cinema Treasures or Water Winter Wonderland.
"Hey
Kids," announced a movie page ad in the August 1, 1931 Ann Arbor
News, "Take your parents to the movies. Every night during the
Greater Movie Season, August second to twenty ninth, the Michigan, Majestic
and Wuerth Theatres will admit free, all children under twelve years of
age when accompanied by their parents." Group ads for these three
Ann Arbor movie houses announced upcoming films.
The
pressures of the Great Depression also led to special promotions in Detroit.
"Shows are better than ever before!" shouted an ad for Publix
Theatres. "The 1931-32 picture hits are here!" In the August 2,
1931 Detroit News, movie columnist Harold Heffernan wrote about
the summer slump at the box office: "There has been the depresh for
one thing, causing the money lenders who pull the strings over Hollywood's
product expenditures to tighten up."
At
the Michigan, two dynamic Warner Brothers stars appeared in Smart
Money, a followup to their breakout performances in Little
Caesar (Edward G. Robinson) and The
Public Enemy (James Cagney). E. C. Beatty, the General Manager
of the W.S. Butterfield Theatres chain, personally touted the Michigan
Theatre appearance of Ernst Lubitsch's The
Smiling Lieutenant (starring Maurice Chevalier): "This has
class, novelty, beautiful women, suspense and above all, clever dialogue."
The
Redford fought the hard times with star-studded second runs: Daddy
Long Legs (Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter); The
Vice Squad (Paul Lukas and Kay Francis); I
Take This Woman (Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard); and A
Free Soul, with Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymoore,
and new star Clark Gable. The
Black Camel and A
Holy Terror featured Sally Eilers, a "quiet-spoken America
leading lady of the 30s." (Halliwell's Filmgoer's & Video
Viewer's Companion)
